Multi-Wavelength Image Space: Another Grid-Enabled Science

Abstract

We describe a new Grid-enabled branch of astronomy: multi-wavelength images. To see sky images in the same pixel space, they must be projected to that space, a compute-intensive process. There is thus a virtual data space induced that is defined by an image and the applied projection. This virtual data can be created and replicated with Planners and Replica catalog technology developed under the GriPhyN project. We plan to deploy our system (MONTAGE) on the US Teragrid. Grid computing is also needed for ingesting data -- computing background correction on each image -- which forms a separate virtual data space. Multi-wavelength images can be used for pushing source detection and statistics by an order of magnitude from current techniques; for optimization of multi-wavelength image registration for detection and characterization of extended sources; and for detection of new classes of essentially multi-wavelength astronomical phenomena. The paper discusses both the grid architecture and the scientific goals.